The subject matter described herein relates generally to improving heat transfer for a printed circuit board (PCB) assembly, and, more particularly, to a thermal interface material and thermal via for reducing thermal resistance between a PCB and a chassis.
Components designed to remove heat from a PCB to a chassis by way of thermal conduction, such as those assemblies containing high power devices, are increasingly challenged to remove higher levels of heat. This is because newly developed processing devices typically contain more circuitry and therefore tend to generate higher heat loads, and/or because components are smaller, thus permitting a PCB to contain more components, thereby increasing an amount of heat generated by the PCB.
In at least some known PCB assemblies, components designed to remove heat contact a non-conductive substrate on the PCB. To avoid conducting electricity between an electrically grounded chassis and electrical components on the PCB (e.g., circuit planes and/or circuit components), at least some known PCB assemblies do not include heat removal components that directly contact the circuit planes and/or circuit components directly. However, the circuit planes and/or circuit components are generally a primary source of heat on the PCB. If a sufficient amount of the heat generated by circuit planes and/or circuit components is not removed and/or dissipated from the PCB, the PCB and circuit components may be damaged and/or malfunction.